Raleigh is a town full of homebrewers and beer lovers in general, you'll be in good company.

American Brewmaster is the store here. Their pricing is very fair--when you count in S&H, they are in line with the best online suppliers. The selection of equipment and ingredients is solid, and they will order stuff for you if they don't have it. The guys are friendly and knowledgeable. There's a self-serve mill, and it's preset--it's always worked just fine for me.

There are two main brewpubs in Raleigh right now, Natty Greene's and Boylan Street . . . I have not been to either one, so I can't comment on the pubs themselves. I have sampled some of NG's beers and they weren't bad, but I also don't remember much about them . . . so they weren't fantastic either. There are a number of great breweries in the area with tasting rooms/bars, and the list keeps growing. There are also a decent number of bars/restaurants with nice lists: Raleigh Times Bar, Busy Bee, Flying Saucer are three big players.

Welcome. This is the greatest tool for finding the breweries and LHBS: http://beermapping.com/maps/citymaps.php?m=triangle. I think most everyone I have brewed with here just uses it straight from the tap or just runs it through a filter. If you want to hang out sometime, keeo your eyes peeled in the brewing events and local gatherings area for GRABASS events. We usually do something around once a month. There's also a club in Durham if you end up on that end of the area. http://trubclub.com/

Brewpubs- Cherry bombs is right around the corner from flying saucer,they have a big selection.(I think same owners as the LHBS American brewmasters). Tylers taproom and Cameron draft house are good too.